Therapy
by 9shadowcat9
Summary: Evelyn's problems continue. She tries to adjust to leaving the Orlesian court and make 'friends' and that should not be as difficult as it's turning out to be. Sequel to The Trial.


The therapist had worked for the mages since the rebellions, helping those who had suffered in the circles. Vivienne had made a small noise to herself as she'd listened to the man's credentials before Fiona had offered his services to Cassandra. He'd taken over a small room in the library which was why he was so rarely seen, he rarely left his office. Another reason was because he had been well known in the Ferelden court and hadn't wanted to be recognised. His practice was already being affected by his 'long sabbatical retreat' without being outed as a Mage supporter.

Evelyn had attended the sessions with one of Leliana's agents as a guard. The agent's secrecy was guaranteed and it meant Iron Bull was no longer playing guard so everyone except Evelyn was happy.

The official story in Skyhold was that Evelyn was severely shaken from a near death experience on the field. It was a well-accepted story; the noble's behaviour had changed since her return so the nobles merely nodded. The gossip the story caused was also fairly difficult to twist. It was always a known fact that the missions were dangerous and Evelyn was a young noble daughter. No one expected her to go to physical battle. She'd been expected to marry well and take to the courts like most noble women and widowed men. A lot of actual familial power came from the courts and the gossip that came out of it. A well told story could destroy a family's standing as well as any son acting out or a husband caught cheating. The scandal! So news Evelyn was highly shaken and unable to lead the Inquisition for a while? Accepted with sad sighs and shaking heads as they muttered about what a pity it was.

Evelyn to her credit never tried to skip the therapy sessions. This didn't mean there weren't problems. The man had never attended The Game like an Orlesian therapist would be expected to so had stormed out of the first session in frustration at 'not understanding a single word she'd said!'. Leliana's agent had translated for her and even that had so much double speak he hadn't been able to say anything.

Had Evelyn attended an Orlesian Circle? Well she might have done but there was also a delightful circle in Kirkwall and hadn't he heard the gossip about it? It was almost shameful how those mages had carried on. The thought of the mages having _mail rights_. Josephine had stepped in quickly to stop the man quitting on the spot and told Evelyn to just speak plainly as he'd ranted to Fiona. Even Dorian had tried to offer advice. Granted the advice was only useful to anyone from Tevinter but it was the thought that counted.

In the end he'd advised her to try to build a support network. 'Yes, _friends'_ he'd clarified with a smile as Evelyn had spluttered in horror. How does one make friends? Well, you can try talking to them or giving gifts?

So she'd tried to follow his advice. Evelyn could manage 'friends'. Any commoner could manage it so she clearly could. But she couldn't try to force them into it. Commoners didn't like blackmail and threats. With that in mind she'd sat down, thought and made a decision. Sadly, she'd decided to try befriending Sera. It was supposed to be easy. Evelyn had ordered her personal tailor to make Sera a dress.

Now Orlesian court fashion had so many twists and turned that tailors were usually raised into the job when working for the courts. Evelyn's tailor was the daughter of the mother's tailor who was the daughter of her Grandmothers tailor. It was a job passed down through the family's. Evelyn's tailor was also very skilled at the language of clothes. For example, an unmarried daughters court dress was slightly shorter than a married woman's dress and her bodice often had patterns sown in (such as a budding flower) to display her searching for a husband. An overskirt could have so many meanings that there had been books written (Very secret, shameful books to own but still a necessity). The outfit could also be marked with warnings. Small warning such as a wilful daughter not looking for a suitor or a widow who was still in mourning. These warnings were often added at the urging of the noble and showed they were someone either not playing The Game at the moment or just that they were someone who you didn't want to talk to. The markings were less shameful then someone who played the Game poorly and were frequently used as a result.

The offer a gift of clothing was seen as either the gravest of insults insulting their tailor or an offer of an alliance from a more skilled noble to a new attendee in the court. The dress was the height of Elven noble (the few there were) fashion. Sleek and gorgeous and labelled with enough warnings that no one in any court would ever willingly approach Sera. Trees to symbolise a headstrong soul was the worst of the warnings, stubborn souls never became a powerful ally in the court. Evelyn had thought it was a nice gift when asking her tailor to deliver it to Sera.

Sera had taken it as the greatest insult ever offered in anything inside or outside the game and had led a one-woman war against the middle to upper class tailor until she'd fled from Skyhold three days later in shame, her standing thoroughly destroyed. And with that Sera became the golden girl of the nobles who had seen the dress and had reasoned Sera knew enough of the Game to recognise the warnings. The Tailor had clearly misjudged Sera and in an attempt to destroy Sera's political standing (because like it or not she was a member of the Inquisition and had an actual political standing now) had destroyed her own work. And poor Evelyn, clearly the tailor had tried to take advantage of her moment of weakness and had been fired in disgrace. The woman's children would never work in clothing again, the shame clinging to the family line for generations to come.

Sera had been proud of her victory against the noble. Until Evelyn locked herself in her room and Vivienne had given the elf a long and scathing lecture on how badly she'd destroyed the woman's work. In the week it took Sera to redestroy her political standing, Evelyn had only left her room for therapy and to ask Vivienne to request for a new tailor from Orlais to replace her previous one. Evelyn's family had quickly sent her a letter proclaiming their despair at the knowledge that her previous tailor had been fired in shame and how they were trying to salvage the woman's name. Maybe hire her as a servant for the kitchens?

Translation; What in the name of the Maker did you do and why are we the ones running damage control when you were the one who made the mistake which destroyed her career.

Leliana had destroyed the letter before Evelyn saw it.

So Sera had been given lessons in the Game and apologising by a very annoyed Vivienne and Varric had taken it upon himself to try teaching Evelyn how to 'not be a noble'. Hey, he was already teaching Cole to be human. His lessons involved him talking through a door slipping bits of paper with notes under it. It was bad enough at one point Iron Bull had joined the lesson. No one knew who had it worse by the end, those two for doing it or Evelyn who had tried to ignore them by jamming her head under a pillow until Leliana's agent had prodded her into listening to them.

Sera's apology came at the end of many lessons from Vivienne and Josephine. She'd been forced into the offending dress, had her hair washed and properly cut and even then, Vivienne stood at the door making a small cough every time Sera started to leaving the clearly planned speech. Whether or not Sera actually was sorry was difficult to tell. She was probably sorrier for upsetting 'one of the little people' then Evelyn but here she was. Apologising, while stood stiffly at attention in an attempt to mimic proper posture and clearly trying to pronounce the words correctly.

Evelyn accepted the apology properly, reverting to her noble manners for the first time since the meeting. She stood tall and nodded as Sera spoke, never acknowledging the moments where she stumbled or paused. And that was the greatest insult Evelyn could offer Sera. It showed how insincere this entire show was. The apology mattered as much as the acceptance and Evelyn had accepted it without acknowledging it. The bare minimum for a court apology. In the courts, Evelyn would have been snubbed by everyone for it. Instead Sera stumbled through the apology, thanked her for the dress and left quickly. Vivienne closed the door behind her.

"She did mean it dear."

"And she destroyed the standing of my childhood tailor."

"A grave mistake." A mistake that she had to get over, was unspoken as Vivienne left snubbing Evelyn in the process.

The meeting of the therapist was… interesting to say the least. Evelyn had broken into a long drawn out rant about how commoners made no damn sense and the therapist had told her it probably hadn't helped she still considered Sera a 'commoner' to begin with. Evelyn was not above Sera despite her birth due to the fact that Sera was helping defeat Corypheus and _maybe_ trying to be polite would help her more?

After _that_ Evelyn had attempted going to the tavern. That was something commoners… normal people of normal birth did, right? She had dressed in what appeared to be common fashion and had forgone her mask instead wearing exotic make up. She had only received stares this time.

So she'd sat with the chargers and tried to enjoy normal, non-twisty dialogue which had confused her more than being in the courts. So how did you know who was lying or telling the truth? Did co… normal people normally hold conversations like this? Iron Bull had spotted her confusion and attempted to copy court speak with her in an attempt to translate. It didn't work but it was a nice attempt.

Krem's attempts at court speak went slightly worse and soon the group was full of drunken attempts at court speak and one properly speaking court speak. It brought a smile to Evelyn's face as a failed drunken deflection was met by a poorly worded barb. It was slightly pitiful as well but some people weren't simply weren't raised with the knowledge of the court so it was a worthwhile attempt all the same. Evelyn just sat back and listened to the attempts at double speak about whether or not the ale was any good (She wouldn't know. She'd got wine.) when behind her someone said Dorians name.

It was a simple matter, to listen to the drunks. They didn't even try to monitor their voice to an appropriate level so the gossips tales of how Dorian was clearly failing to protect the Inquisitor were heard. She sighed, drinking more of her wine. (Alcohol was such a disgusting drink. To be able to destroy your self-control so utterly…)

So she stood and sauntered over with the bottle, hand hiding how much she'd drank. The drunks blinked blearily at her as she spoke a twisted tale of how it was Dorian saved her life at Emprise du Lion with his magic. How he had summoned the fire that had stopped the Templars until Iron Bull was able to recover and wasn't it amazing how a mage from _Tevinter_ was so skilled at saving her life? And so modest as well! Why else wouldn't he tell this tale in the tavern?

The drunk wouldn't remember the tale, but the eavesdroppers would. And they would spread the tale, twisting the facts that could be twisted but the part of Dorian's heroism was so interwoven it couldn't be removed. She would never understand how commoners didn't use The Game to control rumours. It was always an interesting challenge. Enough of a tale that people were interested, but not too much that people lost interest.

With that she'd returned to the chargers who were looking at her in such obvious startled confusion that they had clearly also listened in to the tale weaving. She smiled, turning the bottle in her hand. She wouldn't drink anymore, but the appearance of alcohol helped the perception that she was at least partially drunk and easy to manipulate.

She wondered if they were going to tell Dorian what she'd said? Well, it would be difficult for them to damage her control over the rumours so she might as well let them. Iron Bull had probably caught on to what she was doing though as he loudly yelled for another round, sloshing the remaining ale in his mug as he waved his arm. And the Chargers joined the call, loudly cheering until Evelyn was biting her lip to stop her commenting because the display was so undignified (But what else could you expect from a Qunari?). Instead she waited a good length of time until she could make her excuses and leave, taking the wine with her and pouring the bottle out onto the grass the moment no one else could see her.

Her attempts at talking with c… normal people ended with her in the library searching for lower class books in an attempt to find something on normal culture because it was clearly vastly different from the noble culture. (Her one attempt at wearing a mask at the tavern had ended in mockery. In revenge, she had spread enough rumours of the man's infidelity that he was never able to be seen near a common whore again without his son dragging him away from her.) So she had stopped wearing her mask outside of meals with important dignitaries. It was horrible.

She found nothing and left empty handed, dodging the mages attempts to talk to her as she walked to the main hall. It was an exhausting attempt. People made no sense out of the courts. They didn't wear masks or make up and they became… upset when you lied? And they even became frustrated when you attempted court speak with them. (Although she didn't know, this was why Blackwall avoided her like the blight. He found politicians annoying and every time he spoke with her felt like they were talking in circles. Which they were, it was the way the Orlesian Courts spoke.)

Throughout this entire mess Leliana's agents followed from a distance, writing reports about her activities. The attempts at befriending… someone which often ended about as poorly as could be expected. Even the therapist and the daily meetings was astounded at how badly she was doing at this. And since he was used to dealing with mages adjusting to suddenly being thrown into the open world? That said a lot about how badly she was doing.

"A dress?" He'd heard about Sera. Everyone knew about the crazy, pranking, noble hating elf that lived in the tavern. She seemed like the person you'd give a bow. Or a knife. Or a jar of bees and wasps. Not a dress. Everybody but Sera's boss apparently.

"It was a good gift! It was even marked that she could wear it to an Orlesian ball and no one would speak to her!" Yeah, he wasn't going to ask. Orlesian courts were a headache he didn't need. Give him mages struggling with heliophobia or agoraphobia any day.

And thus, the therapy continued to avoid the major issues, like the circle and the Templars and how she'd manipulated everyone into leaving the Templars to die. Evelyn was very proud of that. She was never going to willingly approach the topic of the circles and after the first meeting? Neither was he.


End file.
